Old Essroc office on the market

The former Essroc office building on U.S. Route 224 is back on the market after being used as collateral in the company’s negotiations with a local government.

The 55-acre property at 6969 Center Road has been vacant for years, but Mahoning County placed a hold on the building so it couldn’t be sold as Essroc and Springfield Township negotiated, said Springfield Trustee Robert Orr.

A year ago, Springfield trustees voted to accept a $2 million settlement from Essroc instead of trying to force the company to comply with an original agreement to reconstruct Western Reserve Road from Kansas to State Line roads and Rapp and Donaldson roads from Felger Road.

The old Essroc office building, which is in Poland Township, is free of county obligations but still has a lien from a court case filed by the Ohio Department of Taxation against Essroc relating to income tax, according to online court records.

The Mahoning County Auditor’s Office lists the Center Road property’s total market value as $419,810.

“Perhaps there’s someone interested. It’s a nice building. There just hasn’t been anyone in it since Essroc,” Orr said.

Poland Zoning Inspector Robert Monus said if there is interest, he hasn’t heard of it.

“I have had no inquiries on that land,” he said.

Monus said the last time a company was interested in the property was in 2001, when Adolescent Counseling & Treatment Inc. wanted to create a home for troubled teens.

The company applied for a conditional-use permit for the residential center because the land is zoned industrial.

It eventually withdrew the request because public opposition to the center was so strong.

In addition to the limestone mine in Springfield and office building in Poland, Essroc also operated a cement plant in Bessemer, Pa. That plant closed in 2009 when the company said it didn’t have enough business to stay open, which resulted in a loss of about 110 jobs.